on 2/7/2025, 6:35 am
Tufts undergraduate Amanda Lee is blogging her weekly assignments in a film studies class that has somehow been migrated into the English department. (An overview of the course--"Film Noir and the American Tradition," definitely in academic dudgeon--can be seen here, along with the films chosen for the class:
https://sites.tufts.edu/amandalee2026/eng0088/
Ms. Lee doesn't do a bad job at all, and we're bookmarking her to follow her progress through the films. Of course, she has been focused by her instructor to do a particular form of close analysis that is likely to leave out some larger issues that may be needed for a complete evaluation. She is strong here in picking up on the subtle visual cues for the romantic arc in MURDER, MY SWEET as set in place by director Edward Dmytryk and screenwriter John Paxton, but she is not yet to the point where she questions the happy romantic denouement in the film and what that might imply relative to the overall meaning & import of film noir.
I think the exercise utilized here would ultimately be more valuable if the instructor were to "up the ante" in subsequent weeks and prevail upon the students to analyze 2-3 scenes from each film to tie together more of what makes the film work, in addition to seeking to isolate moments that capture some sense of the "dark side" of the American identity.
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